LECTURE Revenue farmed for five years. 244 DIRECT MANAGEMENT OF REVENUE. at Patna and Moorshedabad which the Court of Directors had intimated their intention of establishing were appointed, but they seem not to have answered the purpose for which they were instituted.1 On the 28th August 1771 the Court of Directors announced their determination "to stand forth as dewan, and by the agency of the Company's servants to take upon themselves the entire care and management of the revenues." This involved displacing Mahomed Reza Khan and the native establishment under him, which was done on the 11th May 1772 by proclamation under the orders of the Directors. This proclamation announced that the charge of the office of dewan would be assumed for the present by the Revenue Councils at Moorshedabad and Patna: it also contained a summary of the branches of administration which appertained to the dewanny? The first step after assuming direct charge of the dewanny was to make arrangements with respect to the revenue. This was done by Regulations passed on the 14th May 1772, providing for letting the revenue to farm for five years; and also providing for the administration of justice in the provinces, and the regulation and conduct of affairs at the Presidency. It was provided by these Regulations that the revenue should be farmed for five years from the 1st Bysack 1179 (10th April 1772): the farms to consist of entire pergunnahs, provided they did not yield more than a lac of rupees a year as revenue. The settlement 3 1 Harington's Analysis, 6. 2 Ib., 11, 12. Colebrooke's Supplement, 189, 190. 3 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 4. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 12. Colebrooke's Supplement, 190, 191. 4 Art. 1. 5 Art. 2. FARMING SETTLEMENT. LECTURE VII. 245 in the mofussil was to be made by a Committee of the Board composed of Mr. Warren Hastings as President, and four other members going circuit for that purpose.1 The collecting officers were to be called Collectors instead of supervisors. With the Collector was to be associated a fixed dewan to keep separate accounts of the collections according to the established forms. No sepoys, peons, or other persons with authority were to be sent into the lands belonging to the farmers, except when indispensable for the farmer's assistance, and in that case only under a warrant. The farmer was prohibited from receiving on any pretence larger rents from the ryots than the amount stipulated for in the pottahs, and on a conviction for doing so the farmer was to be compelled to repay the ryot the sum extorted, and to pay a penalty of equal amount to the Government; upon repetition of the offence, or in a notorious case, his lease was to be annulled.5 Similarly no demand was to be made upon the farmers beyond the agreed dowl or rent-roll delivered to them with their lease.6 The imposition of mathoots, or assessments upon the ryots Abwabs and under the names of mangun, baurie gundee, sood, or prohibited. any other abwab or tax, was prohibited. Abwabs of late establishment were to be carefully scrutinised, and, if found oppressive and pernicious, to be abolished by the Committee. Similarly all nuzzurs and salamees, which are described as being usually presented at the first interview Art. 3. 2 Art. 6. 3 Art. 7. 4 Art. 9. 5 Art. 10. 6 Art. 11. 7 Art. 12. cesses LECTURE 3 as marks of subjection and respect, were to be abolished.1 It was provided that no servant of the Collector, and no European, should rent or farm lands; and that no such servant should be accepted as security for any farmer. The Collector was directed to try to stop usurious lending to the ryots: and neither he nor his servants were to be allowed to lend money to any person within his district. The zemindars, talookdars, shicdars (shaikdars), and other officers of Government were also forbidden to lend money to the ryots; but the farmer might afford the usual and necessary aids of tuccabee (or tuccavee) at an interest of two per cent. a month payable in money. To prevent oppression by the zemindars, all zemindary chowkies were abolished; and it was provided that none should be kept but such as depended directly upon Government under the puchuttera, bukshbunder, and shahbunder. Lastly, the Collectors were directed to prepare a rent-roll of each farm, arranged in pergunnahs, with full accounts of all charges, &c., and of the highest rent ever realised. Here we find the zemindars as such entirely displaced. The President and Council were however anxious that the farms should be let to the zemindars and talookdars; and the instructions from home were that they should not, "by any sudden change, alter the constitution, nor deprive the zemindars, &c., of their ancient privileges and immunities:" but as the zemindars would not agree to the terms proposed, the farms were let by auction to the highest bidders, sufficient security being required. Before Art. 13. 2 Art. 17. 8 Art. 18. 4 Art. 21. Art. 23. VII. letting them in this way, a new hustabood was made out, LECTURE excluding the arbitrary duties theretofore levied by the zemindars on all goods and necessaries of life passing through the interior by water. The bazee-jumma, or fines for petty crimes and misdemeanours, and the haldaree, or tax on marriage, were also excluded. The collection of these exactions from the ryots was forbidden.' The attempt to suppress illegal exactions, which had been a main object of the British Government from the first, was never very successful; and, as we have seen, many of these exactions continue even down to the present day. The total abolition of the haldaree or marriage tax was carried into effect by the Council as far as the Government was concerned on the 21st August 1772, upon the proposal of the Committee of Circuit in a letter dated 15th August 1772.* administered On the 28th July 1772, the Committee of Circuit, with a Revenue view to the more direct control over revenue matters, from the Presidency. proposed the abolition of the Board of Revenue at Moorshedabad, and the transfer of its functions to the President and Council at Calcutta. It was suggested that one effect of this change might be expected to be the development of Calcutta, and the diminution of the importance of Moorshedabad. A plan was accordingly drawn up on 20th August 1772, and approved on 29th August. The plan included the appointment of Rajah Rajbullub as Royroyan, to superintend the provincial dewans. It contained full directions as to the management of the various offices. The head canoongoes only were continued, and the rest were dismissed: the 'Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 16. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 5. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 12. LECTURE Review of revenue 248 REVIEW OF REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. Committee observing "that their utility is almost totally suppressed." Those retained were paid salaries, and their ancient dues were appropriated by Government.1 It may be useful to insert here an extract from a review of the administration of the revenue since the acquisition of the dewanny, contained in a letter from the President in Council to the Court of Directors, and dated 3rd November 1772: Though seven years had elapsed since the Company administration, became possessed of the dewanny, yet no regular process had ever been formed for conducting the business of the revenue. Every zemindary and every talook was left to its own particular customs. These indeed were not inviolably adhered to, the novelty of the business to those who were appointed to superintend it, the chicanery of the people whom they were obliged to employ as their agents, the accidental exigencies of each district, and not unfrequently the just discernment of the Collector, occasioned many changes. Every change added to the confusion which involved the whole, and few were either authorised or known by the presiding members of the Government. The articles which composed the revenue, the form of keeping accounts, the computation of time, even the technical terms, which ever form the greatest part of the obscurity of every science, differed as much as the soil and productions of the province. This confusion had its origin in the nature of the former Government. The nazims exacted what they could from the zemindars and great farmers of the revenue, whom they left at liberty to Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 25 to 29. Colebrooke's Supplement, 194 to 200. |